Pre-Installation Notes

• Verify that you are currently using Version 2.  This upgrade does not work with any 1.X versions.
• Make a backup copy of the entire /affiliatewiz/ folder on your web server.
• Make a backup of your Affiliate Wiz SQL Server database.  This upgrade will significantly alter the database including renaming all tables.  A database backup is vital in case the upgrade script fails.
• If you have made any modifications to the code, then you will want to compare all files that have changed and merge the changes.
• Please verify that your server meets the following requirements
  • .NET Framework 2.0 (Note: this can be installed using the Windows Update tool)
  • Make sure the IIS Application for AffiliateWiz has selected .NET 2.0 on the ASP.NET Tab.  If 1.1 is selected and you change to 2.0 make sure this application pool is not shared by other applications running .net 1.1 or you will get an error.
    

   

Installation Instructions

1. This Affiliate Wiz directory must be made an Application Starting Point so that Affiliate Wiz can use it's own Global.asax file.  Click here for instructions on creating an application starting point.
    
2. Extract the upgrade files contained in AffiliateWiz7UpgradeFrom2.zip  to a temporary location on your local computer.  You will now see several folders.
    
3. In the folder where you just extracted the files, find the RootDirectory folder and inside that folder set the database connection in the web.config file.  The variable is called DBConnectionString.
   
   <add key="DBConnectionString" value="Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX;Initial Catalog=AffiliateWiz;User Id=AffiliateWiz;Password=yourpassword" />
   
   Server=The IP Address or physical server name of the SQL server
   UID=The Username you assigned to the database.  The default username is AffiliateWiz
   PWD=The password you assigned to the database
   DATABASE=The name of the database.  The default is AffiliateWiz
    
4. From within SQL Query Analyzer, execute the script called AffiliateWiz7UpgradeFrom2.sql on your existing Affiliate Wiz database.  This script is found in the /database/ folder in the location where you unzipped the files.  The database is now converted to the new format.  If you are unsure how to do this, please review Steps 5-7 of the original database instructions found at: support/SQLnewdb.asp and noting that in step 5 the SQL script is named AffiliateWiz7UpgradeFrom2.sql.
   

   Note: If any errors occurred while running the database script, you should record the error and email it to us. At the same time restore the database to the backup copy you just made.  Do no proceed on with the installation.

   
   

5. Delete all old .ASP scripts if you wish.  To keep your directories clean, you may wish to delete all the old ASP files found in the web folder where Affiliate Wiz is currently installed.  You can also delete those in the admin and help folders.
    
6. Copy the files AND FOLDERS from inside the directory called "RootDirectory" to the web server directory where Affiliate Wiz is installed.  If you installed the software at http://www.yourdomain.com/affiliatewiz then that is where these files are to be copied.  You will be overwriting the existing files.  Be sure to include the subdirectories including Bin, Admin, Ads, and Affiliate.
    
7. Copy the file in the images directory to the images directory.  This will most likely be... http://www.yourdomain.com/affiliatewiz/images.  
    
8. Login to the Affiliate Wiz admin area and make sure things are working properly.   The admin console is located in a folder called /admin/ off the folder where you installed Affiliate Wiz.
    
9. Commissions are now specified at the affiliate type level rather than the Affiliate Level.  At this time you should edit/update each Affiliate Type and make sure the commissions, cookie expiration, etc. are set as desired.  The upgrade script will create new affiliate types in the event that an affiliate had a different rate from other affiliates in that Affiliate Type.  The new Affiliate Types will be in the format "Old Name_#".
    
10. Visit the preferences and click update to make sure the server parameters are properly reset.   In the preferences, change "URL of AffiliateWiz Program" so that it points to aw.aspx rather than aw.asp or affiliatewiz.asp.
    
    Also, change "Affiliate Signup/Information page" to point to join.aspx rather than join.asp.
     
11. Update your tracking code.  You should now update the tracking code that you have located on your store confirmation page or any lead tracking code.  All you need to do is change the file extension from aw.asp or affiliatewiz.asp to aw.aspx.
     
12. Update link to Signup Page.  If your web site has a link pointing to the signup page (join.asp) you should update the link to point to join.aspx.
     
13. If you track sales through PayPal, you should update your PayPal settings to post to aw.aspx instead of aw.asp or affiliatewiz.asp.
     
14. Set permissions to upload images.  Version 5 includes a file upload utility to upload images.  The ASPNET and IUSR account need WRITE permissions on the ads folder in order to upload images.  Please see these instructions.  If you don't have an /ads/ folder in the root folder where you installed Affiliate Wiz then you can create one.
     
15. Ask your affiliates to update their links to point to aw.aspx instead of aw.asp.  Although their links will still work, forms that use a post may not work unless they update their links.  You can use the Affiliate Wiz tool for sending an email broadcast to your affiliates asking them to update their links.
     

Mark Commissions As Paid (IMPORTANT)

1. Affiliate Wiz version 3 and higher supports marking commissions as paid.  It is Vital that you mark all commissions that have already been paid as "paid".  If you don't affiliates will think they earned far more commissions than they actually have.  To mark commissions as paid, use only the tool called "Pay Affiliates/Compile Commissionsl" found under the tools menu.  Refer to the Affiliate Wiz help file for more information.  As an example, if you started your affiliate program in January of 2001, select a begin date of January 1, 2001.  If you last paid commissions ending on  September 20, 2005 then select an end date of September 30,2005.  This will mark all commissions from January 1,2002 through September 30,2005 as paid.